An exegesis on ‘Jihad in Islam’

Syed Kamran
Mirza

[Author’s
note: I apologize to the readers for writing such a
lengthy essay on Jihad. Jihad is extremely serious
matter in the Islamic history. There is abundance of
valuable literatures depicting Islamic Jihad which I
could not include in order to keep the size within
limit. However, I tried my best to make it as plausible
as possible by many important literatures dealing with
Jihad. Some Islamists are trying to fool the western
readers by their deceitful and elusive meanings of
Jihad. I urge the readers to have patience to read the
entire article in order to learn about the true meaning
of Islamic Jihad.]

September Eleventh’s horrific episode has come as
the big thunder out of the blue to strike the core
meaning of Islam. Since
then, Islamists were busy defending Islam, which
according to them was hijacked by militant Islamists.
For quite a while, they spent time in their
futile efforts to make Islam a peaceful religion. Now
they are busy again to give a wishful new meaning of
Jihad. This
essay will be dedicated to explore the practical meaning
and purpose of Islamic Jihad.

What is the
meaning of Jihad?

The meaning of Jihad in the Webster Dictionary: is
Holy war. The meaning of “Crusade” is also Holy war.
Entire humanity knows—historically both “Jihad”
and “Crusade” was soaked with blood. Now why then we
are debating and trying to redefine Jihad at this
juncture?

Now in the Arabic language the word “Jihad”
literally means, "to strive,” and "to
struggle.” Some
Muslim scholars further classify Jihad into following
categories: 1. Jihad-an-nafs or Jihad against
one’s self; 2. Jihad ash-shaitaan or Jihad
against Satan; 3. Jihad al-kuffar or Jihad
against disbeliever; 4. Jihad al-munafiqeen or
Jihad against hypocrites; 5. Jihad al-faasiqeen
or Jihad against corrupt Muslims. Now, can we make
people fool by these semantic loopholes of the various
meanings of Jihad? Certainly not!

Honestly, I am not very much impressed by the various
bookish meanings of the Arabic word “Jihad.”
We know very well that in every language certain
words may have many different meanings depending on its
usage. That does not mean one can elude people the
actual meaning of the word with some different meanings
of a particular word.
Because the word meaning is always understood by
its practical or circumstantial use only. Consider the
word Jihad that means struggle. This struggle may have
various circumstantial effects. Struggle can be in your
mind, in your own life, in your work, in your way to
office with the traffic, or struggle may be fighting
with the enemy. You can say: “I am fighting with my
mind whether I should accept it or not,” or “I am
fighting with my wife over the decision of changing our
house” or you can say—“I am fighting a war with my
enemy.” Now,
a simple human being will see the meaning of the word
“fight” (usual meaning of which is armed collision)
varies greatly with it’s circumstantial use.

Sometimes the actual meaning of a particular word may
even change by the circumstantial use. Consider the
Perso-Indian (Urdu) word “Razakar” means “helper
of King.” However, by its circumstantial and
historical use, the meaning may have changed greatly.
In 1971, Bangalee’s freedom struggle (War
of Freedom or Muktijuddha) the Razakars killed,
raped, and tortured millions of freedom loving Bangalees.
Now, in Bangladesh, calling some body a Razakar
is not salutary, but on the contrary it is an epithet or
it is an outright demeaning, to put it mildly.
If you call somebody Razakar, he may come to
physically assault you.
Why? The
circumstantial and historical effects have changed the
meaning and nuances of the word Razakar from helper to
vile conspirator and Fifth Columnist.
That is a valid reason why we must take the
meaning of Jihad from its historical and circumstantial
effects. I shall search for the meaning of the Jihad
from its (a)
History, (b) Qur’an referrals, (c) Hadiths’
mentioning of it, and (d) Historians and Islamic
scholars interpretation of it.

A.
Historical meaning of Jihad:

Historically, Jihad means Holly War. For 1400 years,
Muslims always understood the meaning of Jihad as
Islamic Holy War. Every Islamic scholar, Mullah, maulana,
Imam, etc., of the whole world will agree with this
meaning of Jihad. Technically,
Jihad is war against non-Muslims (Jihad
al-kuffar or Jihad against disbeliever; and Jihad
al-munafiqeen or Jihad against hypocrites) only,
since Muslims are forbidden to fight the Muslims.
Hundreds of books were written by the Islamic scholars
on Jihad and everybody unanimously used the word Jihad
as the religious war called holy war.In the
Islamic history, more than 80% ofthe
texts are filled with Holy War (Jihad). Early Islam
was spread in the Arabian Peninsula solely by holy wars
(Jihad). Islam was propagated as a religion by series of
wars/battles –both defensive as well as Offensive. As
many as 78 historic battles were fought by the Prophet
Muhammad himself. And
out of 78, only one (battle of ditch) was defensive war,
and the rest were simply offensive wars.
Did Muslim soldiers go to Syria, Iran, and Egypt
to fight defensive war?
What about those great historical BATTLES –
Battle of Oho’d, Battle of Bad’r, Battle of Khayber, signing
of peace-pacts such as “Hudaibya Peace Pact,” etc.?
Were those wars fought with the so-called struggle only?
Alternatively, were those wars fought with the
heart-piercing sharpened swords?

Prophet Mohammed and his successors initiated series
of offensive wars against pagan Arabs, Jews, Christians,
etc., to spread or to impose Islam by force as well as
to seize the abundance (booty) of these lands.
However, it was quite possible that there had been some
small numbers of conversions by sheer greatness of
Prophet himself or due to some other miracles.
Nevertheless, a great majority was converted by force,
and people of Arabia did not have freedom to choose.
After Prophet Muhammad gained enough might in his force
while in Medina, the tradition was to send an invitation
of Islam to various Arab Tribes or countries.
First, an invitation to pagans to accept Islam, then war
against those whorefuse to accept
Islam. A
typical invitation to the people of the book (Christians
and Jews) was: “Embrace Islam, or pay the poll-tax (Ziziya),or fight to death.”
Undoubtedly, the concept of an offensive war to
spread the faith of Islam is a genuine Islamic concept:
Holy War (Jihad) for the sake of God. I can
write hundreds of pages of authentic Islamic history of
wars in which tens of thousands of life was lost; tons
of human bloods were shed.

Prophet
Muhammad wasinjured
seriously (lost some teeth) in one of those wars he
fought relentlessly. Prophet’s uncle Amir Hamzah
was killed and dismembered and his liver and heart were
eaten by the wife of a pagan tribe leader Abu Sufian.
Now may I ask what kind of so-called “struggle”
might have caused these above misery? It was obviously
by Jihad (Holy War) and not by any peaceful struggle,
indeed.

B. What
Qur’an Says about Jihad?

Jihad was mentioned in the Qur’an most frequently
with the meaning of "warfare,” often coupled with
"fi sabil
Allah" (in the way of Allah). Jihad as warfare
is a pivotal concern for the Qur’an, the Hadith and
the Shari‘ah which we shall explore later in this
essay.

All most all the hateful, coercive, intimidating and
tempting verses in the Quran were made in respect to the
Jihad—Holy war.

Important to
note: Prophet Muhammad
while he was in Mecca did not have too many supporters;
hence, he was very weak in power compare to the Pagans.
It was at that time he brought some soft verses (maximum
one dozen in the whole Qur’an) which our hypocritical
Islamists use them to elude the truth of Islam. But in
Medina Muhammad quickly assumed both religious and
political power and leadership over the whole Median
community. It was at that time he brought all those
harsh/hateful (several hundreds of them) Qur’anic
verses just to incite his followers to fight.

In the Holy Qur’an one can find hundreds of verses
(Ayats) which dictates to fight holy wars (Jihad)
against non-Muslims infidels. Let me cite here a
few of them:

Qur’an-(9:5):
“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight
and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, And seize
them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every
stratagem (of war) ; but if they repent (accept Islam)
and establish regular prayers and practices regular
charity then open the way for them; for God is
oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”

Qur’an-(8:65):
“ O Apostle ! Rouse
the believers to the fight, if there are
twenty amongst you, patient and persevering , they will
vanquish two hundred; if a hundred, they will vanquish a
thousand of the unbelievers; for these are a people
without understanding.”

Quran-2:216: Fighting
is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But
it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for
you

Qur’an-(2:191):
“And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them
out from where they have turned you out………such is
the reward of those who suppress faith.”

Qur’an-(9:29):
“Fight those who believe not the Allah nor the last
day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden
by Allah and his apostle, nor acknowledge the religion
of truth even if they are the people of the book, until
they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel
themselves subdued.”

Qur’an(48:20):
“….Allah promises you much booty (spoils of war)
that you will capture from the defeated infidels….”

Quran-8:38 “And fight them on until there is
no more Tumult or oppression”

Quran-8:12: I
will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers:
smite ye above their necks and smite all their
finger-tips off them

Quran-8: 15,16: O ye who believe! when ye meet the
Unbelievers in hostile array, never turn your backs to
them. If any do turn his back to them on such a day -
unless it be in a stratagem of war, or to retreat to a
troop (of his own)- he draws on himself the wrath of
Allah, and his abode is Hell,- an evil refuge (indeed)!

Quran-9:111: Allah hath purchased of the believers
their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is
the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and
slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in
truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the

Qur’anQuran-9:73: O Prophet! Strive against the
disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them.
Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey’s end.

Quran-9:123: O ye who believe! Fight those of the
disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find
harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who
keep their duty (unto Him).

Quran-4:95: O ye who believe! Shall I show you a
commerce that will save you from a painful doom? You
should believe in Allah and His messenger, and should
strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your
lives. That is better for you, if ye did but know.
... Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who
strive and fight with their goods and persons than those
who sit (at home).

C. Jihad as
per Hadiths:

Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihad)
was sanctioned widely in sahi hadiths. Almost
one-third of the fourth of nine volumes of Bukhari,
Islam’s principal collector of Hadith, focused on
jihad as physical war. There are thousands of sahi
hadiths that simply talk about Jihad—the holy war in
Islam. I cannot include them all in this short essay in
order to keep to a minimum.
I will only mention however some of them in this
essay. The following are a few examples:

Sahi Bukhari# 35, page-102:

Prophet Muhammad (sa) narrated, “ He who is out at
war Allah becomes the protector for him. Because, he
only joins the fight when he put his solid belief upon
Allah and his Apostle. Allah provides him wealth and
much booty (Maal-e-goni-mat)
with which he returns home. Or, place him in the
paradise by making him a Shaheed (martyrdom).

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 46:

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah's Apostle saying,
"The example of a Mujahid in Allah's Cause-- and
Allah knows better who really strives in His Cause----is
like a person who fasts and prays continuously. Allah
guarantees that He will admit the Mujahid in His Cause
into Paradise if he is killed, otherwise He will return
him to his home safely with rewards and war booty (maal-e-gani-maat)."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 53:

Narrated Anas bin Malik: The Prophet said,
"Nobody who dies and finds good from Allah (in the
Hereafter) would wish to come back to this world even if
he were given the whole world and whatever is in it,
except the martyr who, on seeing the superiority of
martyrdom, would like to come back to the world and get
killed again (in Allah's Cause)."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 48:

Narrated Anas: The Prophet said, "A single
endeavor (of fighting) in Allah's Cause in the afternoon
or in the forenoon is better than all the world and
whatever is in it. A place in Paradise as small as the
bow or lash of one of you is better than all the world
and whatever is in it. And if a houri from Paradise
appeared to the people of the earth, she would fill the
space between Heaven and the Earth with light and
pleasant scent and her head cover is better than the
world and whatever is in it."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 44:

Narrated Abu Huraira: A man came to Allah's Apostle
and said, "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals
Jihad (in reward)." He replied, "I do not find
such a deed." Then he added, "Can you, while
the Muslim fighter is in the battle-field, enter your
mosque to perform prayers without cease and fast and
never break your fast?" The man said, "But who
can do that?" Abu- Huraira added, "The Mujahid
(i.e. Muslim fighter) is rewarded even for the footsteps
of his horse while it wanders bout (for grazing) tied in
a long rope."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 49:

Narrated Samura: The Prophet said, "Last night
two men came to me (in a dream) and made me ascend a
tree and then admitted me into a better and superior
house, better of which I have never seen. One of them
said, 'This house is the house of martyrs."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume
4, Book 52, Number 50:

Narrated Anas bin Malik: The Prophet said, "A
single endeavor (of fighting) in Allah's Cause in the
forenoon or in the afternoon is better than the world
and whatever is in it."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume
4, Book 52, Number 42:

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: Allah's Apostle said,
"There is no Hijra (i.e. migration) (from Mecca to
Medina) after the Conquest (of Mecca), but Jihad and
good intention remain; and if you are called (by the
Muslim ruler) for fighting, go forth immediately.

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 54:

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said,
"By Him in Whose Hands my life is! Were it not for
some men amongst the believers who dislike to be left
behind me and whom I cannot provide with means of
conveyance, I would certainly never remain behind any
Sariya' (army-unit) setting out in Allah's Cause. By Him
in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred
in Al1ah's Cause and then get resurrected and then get
martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get
martyred and then get resurrected again and then get
martyred.

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 55:

Narrated Anas bin Malik: Prophet of Allah said,
"Zaid took the flag and was martyred, and then
Ja'far took the flag and was martyred, and then
'Abdullah bin Rawaha took the flag and was martyred too,
and then Khalid bin Al-Walid took the flag though he was
not appointed as a commander and Allah made him
victorious." The Prophet further added, "It
would not please us to have them with us." Aiyub, a
sub-narrator, added, "Or the Prophet, shedding
tears, said, 'It would not please them to be with
us."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 61:

Narrated Anas:

My uncle Anas bin An-Nadr was absent from the Battle
of Badr. He said, "O Allah's Apostle! I was absent
from the first battle you fought against the pagans. (By
Allah) if Allah gives me a chance to fight the pagans,
no doubt. Allah will see how (bravely) I will
fight." On the day of Uhud when the Muslims turned
their backs and fled, he said, "O Allah! I
apologize to You for what these (i.e. his companions)
have done, and I denounce what these (i.e. the pagans)
have done." Then he advanced and Sad bin Muadh met
him. He said "O Sad bin Muadh ! By the Lord of An-Nadr,
Paradise! I am smelling its aroma coming from before
(the mountain of) Uhud," Later on Sad said, "O
Allah's Apostle! I cannot achieve or do what he (i.e.
Anas bin An-Nadr) did. We found more than eighty wounds
by swords and arrows on his body. We found him dead and
his body was mutilated so badly that none except his
sister could recognize him by his fingers."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 63:

Narrated Al-Bara: A man whose face was covered
with an iron mask (i.e. clad in armor) came to the
Prophet and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Shall I fight
or embrace Islam first? "The Prophet said,
"Embrace Islam first and then fight." So he
embraced Islam, and was martyred. Allah's Apostle said,
A Little work, but a great reward. "(He did very
little (after embracing Islam), but he will be rewarded
in abundance)."

Sahi Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 52, Number 64:

Narrated Anas bin Malik: Um Ar-Rubai'bint Al-Bara',
the mother of Hartha bin Suraqa came to the Prophet and
said, "O Allah's Prophet! Will you tell me about
Hartha?" Hartha has been killed (i.e. martyred) on
the day of Badr with an arrow thrown by an unidentified
person. She added, "If he is in Paradise, I will be
patient; otherwise, I will weep bitterly for him."
He said, "O mother of Hartha! There are Gardens in
Paradise and your son got the Firdausal-ala (i.e. the
best place in Paradise)." [What
could be a bigger bluffing and exploitation of a poor
ignorant mother (who
lost her son in Jihad) by our merciful Prophet?]

Al-Miqdam b. Madikarib reported God’s messenger as saying, "The
martyr receives six good things from God: he is forgiven
at the first shedding of his blood, he is shown his
abode in paradise, he is preserved from the punishment
in the grave, he is kept safe from the greatest terror,
he has placed on his head the crown of honour a ruby
which is better than the world and what it contains, he
is married to seventy-two wives of the maidens with
large dark eyes, and is made intercessor for seventy of
his relatives." Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah transmitted
it.

D. Jihad as
per Islamic-historians/Scholars/Philosophers:

We can find hundreds of books written by well-known
Islamic authorities (Islamic
thinker) on Jihad.
A few examples of historical events and comments
should be enough to lay the foundation that Jihad in
Islamic history was primarily a Holy War against the
infidels. Here are some examples:

In his book, “ Jurisprudence in Muhammad’s
Biography” the Azhar scholar, Dr. Muhammad
Sa’id Ramadan al-Buti wrote the following:
“The Holy War (Islamic Jihad), as it is
known in Islamic Jurisprudence, is basically an
offensive war. This is the duty of Muslims in
every age when the needed military power becomes
available to them. This is the phase in which the
meaning of Holy war has taken its final form.Thus the apostle
of God said: '
I was commanded to fight the people until they believe
in Allah and his messages…..(page 134, 7th
edition) ”.

Azhar scholar
Dr. Buti adds in the same book (page-263): The
apostle of Allah started to send military detachments
from among his followers to the various Arab tribes
which were scattered in the Arab Peninsula to carry out
the task of calling (these tribes) to accept Islam. If
they did not respond, they (Muslims) would kill them.
That was during the 7th Hgira year. The
number of the detachments amounted to ten.”

The Baydawi
quoted in his book (The
lights of Revelation, page-252): “Fight
Jews and Christians
because they violated the origin of their faith and they
do not believe in the religion of the truth (Islam),
which abrogated
all other religions. Fight them until they
pay the poll-tax (Ziziya tax) with submission and
humiliation.”

In another place of his book (The Jurisprudence in
Muhammad’s Biography) Al-Buti (published in
Egypt) quoted: “The
concept of Holy War (Jihad) in Islam does not take into
consideration whether defensive or an offensive war.
Its goal is the exaltation of the Word of Allah
and the construction of Islamic society and the establishment
of Allah’s Kingdom on Earth regardless of the means.
The means would be offensive warfare. In this
case, it is the apex, the noblest Holy War. It is legal
to carry on a Holy War.”

Ibn Hisham-Al Sohaily quoted in his famous book (Al-
Rawd al- Anaf, page-50,51 ): " No two religions are to exist in the Arab Peninsula .”Therefore, Saudi Government
does not allow any other religion to manifest their
religious task. What a tolerant and peaceful
religion Islam is!

The well-known Egyptian scholar, Sayyid Qutb, (Sayyid Qutb, Milestones,
Revised Edition,chapter.
4, “Jihaad in the Cause of God") notes
four stages in the development of jihad:

While
the earliest Muslims remained in Mecca before
fleeing to Medina, God did not allow them to fight;

2. Permission is given to Muslims to
fight against their oppressors;

God
commands Muslims to fight those fighting them;

God
commands the Muslims to fight against all
polytheists.

Sayyid
Qutb views each stage to be replaced by the next stage
in this order, the fourth stage to remain permanent).
To justify the universal
and permanent dimensions of jihad he cites the following Qur’anic
passages:

Quran:
4:74-32: They
ought to fight in the way of God who have sold the life
of this world for the life of the Hereafter; and whoever
fights in the way of God and is killed or becomes
victorious, to him shall We (God) give a great reward...

Quran:
8:38-40: and fight them until there is no oppression and
the religion is wholly for God....

Quran: 9:29-32: Fight against those among the People of the Book (Jews and
Christians) who do not believe in God and the Last Day,
who do not forbid what God and His messenger have
forbidden, until they are subdued and pay jizyah
(tax on non-Muslims) ...

Sayyid Qutb, however, pours scorn upon those who view
jihad as solely defensive:

... They are
ignorant of the nature of Islam and of its function, and
that it has a right to take the initiative for human
freedom. Thus wherever an Islamic community exists which
is a concrete example of the Divinely-ordained system of
life, it has a God-given right to step forward and take
control of the political authority so that it may
establish the Divine system on earth, while it leaves
the matter of belief to individual conscience.

Maulana Mawdudi’s Fatwa:

Likewise, the popular Pakistani Muslim revivalist
Abu’l Ala Mawdudi rejects any distinction between
offensive and defensive jihad.
So also, the distinguished contemporary Pakistani
scholar, Fazlur Rahman, while recognizing the extensive
presence of jihad in the Qur’an, rejects the stand of
those modern Muslim apologists who have tried to explain
the jihad of the early (Muslim) Community in purely
defensive terms (Fazlur Rahman, Islam (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1979) 37).

According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "the
fight is obligatory even when the unbelievers have not
started it (E. Tyan, “Djihad”, Encyclopaedia
of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill,
1965). In the
words of Rudolph Peters the "ultimate aim of jihad
is ‘the subjection of the unbelievers’ and ‘the
extirpation of unbelief’" (Rudolph
Peters, “Jihad”, The
Encyclopedia of Religion (NewYork: Macmillan, 1987)
Vol. 8:88-91).

All of these authorities simply echo Islam’s
fundamental assumption that world sovereignty must be in
the hands of Muslims.

Quran: 16:101: And
when We put a revelation in place of (another)
revelation, – and Allah knoweth best what He revealeth
– they say: Lo! thou art but inventing. Most of them
know not.

On the basis of these verses there arose within the
Muslim community the principle of Qur’anic
interpretation, called naskh ("abrogation") which stipulated that earlier
peaceful verses could be abrogated by later militant
verses, i.e., in the case of jihad the Meccan verses
were abrogated by the Medinan verses. It is well known
that many Muslim scholars in the early history of Islam
contended that Qur’an
9:5, sometimes called "the verse of the
sword", abrogated a host of peaceful passages in
earlier portions of the Qur’an.

What it has signified in the past and signifies at
present for masses of Muslims is well summarized in a
statement by the world renowned Ibn
Khaldun (A.D. 1332-1406), Islam’s great historian,
sociologist and philosopher:

In the
Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty,
because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission and
(the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by
persuasion or by force. Therefore, caliphate and royal
authority are united in (Islam), so that the person in
charge can devote the available strength to both of them
at the same (Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. by Franz
Rosenthal (New York: Pantheon Books Inc., 1958) Vol.
1:473).

(The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 1:xxiv-xliii ).

So, it is incumbent upon us (Muslims) to follow the path which Allah’s
Messenger (Muhammad) adopted to avoid polytheism and
heresy in all its shapes and to take the Holy Qur’an
and the Prophet’s Traditions as torches in front of us
to guide us. We have to teach our brethren and convey
the Message to non-Muslims all over the world as much as
possible in order to save them from the Hell-fire. We
have to prepare ourselves to stand in the face of our
enemy and to possess the means of power and to
participate in the progress of useful industries in
order to protect our religion and be powerful enough to
face our enemy, as Allah, the Elevated says in Surat
al-Anfal (8:60):

Qur’an: 8:60: Against them (kaffirs) make ready your strength to the
utmost of your power, including steeds of war (tanks,
places, missiles and other weapons, etc.) to strike
terror into the (hearts of) the Enemy of Allah and your
enemy, and others beside, whom you may not know, but
whom Allah does know. Whatever you shall spend in the
Cause of Allah, shall be repaid to you, and you shall
not be treated unjustly

How
many terrorists would appeal to this verse "to
strike terror into the hearts of the enemy"?

The majority of the Qur’an’s texts themselves
clearly identify jihad as physical warfare in Islam and,
Islamically, God’s way of establishing the Kingdom of
God on earth. Likewise, from the Hadith and the earliest
biographies of Muhammad it is just as evident that the
early Muslim community understood these Qur’anic texts
to be taken literally. Historically, therefore, from the
time of Muhammad onwards, jihad as physical warfare in
support of the message of Islam has been a reality for
the Muslim community. Hence, it comes as no surprise
when even terrorists (Osama and his al-Qaeda) easily appeal to these source materials to justify their
actions, not to speak of their teachers who teach the
theory and the art of terrorism. September 11, 2001,
terrorist act in the soil of America is the glittering
example of Jihadi mindset of Islamist like Osama bin
Laden.

Qur’anic Ayats (I just mentioned above) and
numerous Sahi Hadiths of same kind were instrumental for
Muslims to dedicate their strength & minds for the
cause of Islam. Therefore, in the name of spreading the
religion, devout Muslim fighters killed millions of
people while occupying neighboring Arab lands such as
Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq and non-Arab
countries like India, Turkey, Libya, Iran etc.
Even Spain had fallen into their hands for hundreds of
years. I simply wonder were these wars defensive. Were
those swords used by Islamic soldiers to occupy country
after country be considered a symbol of forgiveness or
mercy? Following
Muhammad’s death, his companions fought each other in
relentless savage wars competing for authority.

In summary, Islamic Jihad with the help of Islamic
sword--hundreds of tribes were wiped out from the
Arabian Peninsula. Thousands were orphaned and widowed.
Hazzaz bin Yousuf killed more than a hundred thousand
Sahabis, Ibne Khattal was killed in Kaba’a. Later
Abdulla Bin Zubair was killed in the same Kaba’a.
By the end of the first civil war of Muslims, all
the Badari Sahabis were killed. By the end of three
civil wars all the Sahabis were killed "it sucked
up all the strength of Muslims" ( Bokhari). Ten
thousand Muslims were killed in the Jamal war between
Hazrat Ali (RA) and Bibi Ayesha (RA). Islamic
scholar Dr. Abu Zayd Shalabi claimed in his book
(page-75), in the ‘battle of Alees’ which took place
on the border of Iraq, the great Islamic General Khalid
killed 70,000 people.

Thousands of non-Muslims were killed.
After the death of Prophet Muhammad, there were
four most favorite disciples of Prophet who ruled the
Islamic kingdom established by the prophet Muhammad, who
were known as the most pious caliphs. Outof these four Caliphs—three
of them were brutally assassinated, and only one had
natural death because of his old age and very short
rule of the Islamic state. Karbala was flooded with
blood with a roar of "Allahu Akbar!" Was it because of the fact that Islamic sword was the sign of
Mercy? The
fact of the matter is—sword can never be the sign of
mercy! Period.

Global Agenda:
As I cited various valuable quotes, which clearly
depicted a special and unique feature, which is totally
absent in any other monolithic religions of the world.
Unlike any other world religion—Islam has an ulterior
motive in its agenda. Islam considers it has a sacred
and mandatory God given duty to spread Islamic message (Din-e-Islam)
to all the inhabitants of the world. Their ultimate
wishful goal is to convert and bring entire mankind
under the fold of Islam, the only true religion of
Allah. To this end—two main groups are working very
hard. These two groups are: (a) Militant/radical
Mullahs, (b) Educated/elite western residing true
believing Muslims (Muslims of the ummatic groups in the
west such as: AMC, CAIR, ICNA, ISNA, NABIC etc). Here
we can exclude group-C Muslims (general God fearing
innocent gullible Muslims who constitute about 70-80% of
the total Muslims.

Both the groups (A & B) have one thing common in
their minds. That is to convert sufficient peoples to
Islam in order to establish Islamic Sharia’h or Huhud Laws (Allah’s laws just like Afghan
Taliban state) as the state governing
administration. Here the main difference is—group A
(Militant/fanatics) is engaged in armed struggles (Holy
war, Terrorism); and group-B (mainly western resident)
is engaged in secret and peaceful propagation with sweet
talks and peaceful persuasion of the gullible western
peoples by deceitful sermons in the mosques and in
various annual and semi-annual Islamic conferences and
meetings (Ummatic conference). Both have one last thing
in mind—to
establish Islamic Sharia’h law in the state.

Conclusion:

Our gullible and wishful Islamists like that Harvard
graduate, which we have plenty all over the world, or
any other Islamists who wants to twist the real
practical and historical meaning of Jihad to fool the
modern world, which we have among educated Muslims
scattered everywhere, must consider this.
If they want to give a new twisted meaning – a
sober and politically correct one -- of the word Jihad,
they had better first change the Qur’an, Hadiths and
all those Islamic history books available in the library
throughout the world. Alternatively, they should dump
all the Islamic history literature into the Daria
or sea and re-write a new peaceful Islamic history by
themselves. Sadly,
if they do so, then it will be a
Reformed Islam, which Mullahs will now allow
to happen any time soon. Therefore, the Islamic elites, many of who visit NFB (News
From Bangladesh) on a regular basis, will have to
swallow their false pride and lick their wounds too.
The proverbial phrase – the dogs will be
barking, but the caravan will pass. Humanity is poised
now to get rid of all kinds belief system that has
crippled the humankind and which never allowed us to
rich for a higher plane.